Anomalies I

0:04
Orchestra is brought up too early, rattling is heard before they begin to play (right channel).

1:33-1:35
Edit as John comes in with "yellow matter custard". Listen to the Anthology version of this take, John's voice cracked on the last "I'm crying" (hence, after editing, it sounds like "I'm cry"). The first attempt at "Yellow matter custard" also fails. The take was edited to cover this. Listen to the orchestra (right channel) and you can hear the edit clearly. There is also some drum editing.

2:10
Left channel faded up too soon, so organ and tambourine begin before beat.

2:26-2:31,2:35
Various talking reported, this is the very beginning of the recognisable Shakespeare "King Lear" excerpts (see 3:54)

Ugo Coppola has been doing his research, so I'll hand over to him

I checked Act IV, Scene 6 against the Beatles' recording. It matched perfectly, of course. So now I can positively say that Gloucester says "Now, good sir, wh[at are you?]" and Edgar answers : "[A most] poor man, made tame by fortune['s blows]".

Both sentences are also written on page 269 (September 26, 1967) of Lewisohn's Beatles Chronicle, where he explains how the whole thing got into the mix.

Michael K. picks up the next lines

[Who, by the art of known and feeling sorrows, Am pregnant to] good pity..[Give me your hand, I'll lead you to some biding]

"Good pity" is the tiny fragment before "Expert Texpert".

In the above, [sections marked like this are inaudible] due to editing. However, on the foreign language anomaly side...

Bo Sybrandt Hansen writes

Around 2:27 there are some words spoken by a male voice. These words sound like someone in crystal clear Danish language with correct phrasing, intonation and everything is saying

"Udmaerket, men kan vi ikke tage den lidt hurtigere?"

Translated into English it would be something like

"Quite good, but couldn't we do it a little faster?" or "Alright, but couldn't we try it a little quicker?"

This is where the the words occur:

If the sun don't come you get a tan
from standing in the English rain
I am the eggman
(Spoken, male voice: [?] sir )
They are the eggmen
Spoken, male voice: Udmaerket, men kan vi ikke
tage den lidt hurtigere?
I am the walrus
Goo goo g' joob

No matter how much I listen I can make nothing else of the words. Do you have any suggestions?

Edg. (4:23) I know thee well, a (4:25) serviceable villain. As duteous to the (4:27) vices of thy mistress as badness would desire.

Glo. (4:29) What, is he dead?

Edg. (4:31) Sit you down father, rest you. (Ends 4:33) Let's see these pockets, the letters that he speaks of may be my friends.. He's dead. I am only sorry he had no other deaths man.

So we have two sections containing Shakespeare in the song. How did this get there? Well, it was being broadcast on the radio at the time of the recording, and got mixed in for effect. They just tuned to a station and - there it was! This was not a planned event, according to evidence in Lewisohn's book. The play was being transmitted on the radio at the time the mixing was being done (compare studio notes with an extract from the Radio Times progam listing magazine), and was added live into the mix. This is the reason the mix slips into fake stereo (mono through delays and filters) if you listen to the stereo version.

It would be impossible to exactly duplicate the mix (for the stereo remix) as the Shakespeare was not recorded anywhere but directly into the finished master.

Having said that, listen to the Anthology DVD "I Am The Walrus" 5.1 surround mix. The final part of the song is now in true stereo, and elements of King Lear are much clearer than the original. This must have required Apple to get hold of the original broadcast from the BBC, or an independent archive, and remix using the original master tape as a guide. This is something that is only really possible with today's automated mixing technology, and would not have been considered back then.

4:32
The whole track seems to speed up just as it fades away to nothing.

Note that Paul Simon is thought to be making reference to this song, in his line "Coo Coo Ca Choo, Mrs. Robinson". If this is true (rather than a coincidence) he wasn't listening to the lyrics hard enough.

0:11
Poor edit after "I Call Your Name" and before "but you're not there", making a soft "flump" sound. This is made more obvious by the sudden appearance of a cowbell at this point, three beats late, and also of the sudden, late double tracking of the vocal.

0:47-0:51
George Harrison forgets his guitar figure for the middle-eight here.

1:43
Poor double track in "Oh I can't sleep at night bu/but just the same".

0:00
Red/Blue Album Capitol remix opens with drumstick clicks, and John saying "It's not enough".

0:05 Listen!
Cough and a click sound. Also reported as "an obscenity", and "someone spitting", "something mechanical, e.g. a WahWah pedal", "finger sliding down guitar neck to get to proper chord" and "snares being set on or off the drums".

0:48
Most voices sing "She's so glad", one sounds like they've sung "He's" or "I'm" instead!

0:12-0:14,1:18-1:21
Snares on the drum kit resonate to the sound of the guitar amps, before the drums come in.

2:15 Listen!
In the fade out, people report hearing a barking dog. It's not a dog, but Paul freaking out and making woop/woof noises. Very realistic, but no dog!

0:11
On stereo versions only, John's voice is double tracked here, and a timing error occurs between the two copies of "and I".

1:45
Paul's voice cracks on the word "vain".

Mono version eliminates this by editing in another chorus, although it is reported that the cracking is still there, I don't hear it on my Mono UK CD. There is a quiver in Paul's voice, but not as bad a problem as that found in the stereo mix.

Whole Song
Sounds like George is inhaling on a cigarette throughout this song, listening to the right channel.

0:52
CD Version only - whole track phases (flanges) very slightly.

1:52
CD Version - track phases (flanges) again.

Apparently in some versions both of these points have someone singing falsetto harmonies as a guide to the next part coming up. Maybe the phasing is a by-product of removing this for the CD, through overlapped editing-together of takes?

2:08
Squeaky blip noise, just where the second 12-string guitar (to the right) comes in for the end part.

1:37
Click after word "to" in "will try to show that" (left channel, stereo mix only). Also, a bass flub at this point.

2:00-2:02
There's a partial fade out on Paul's voice and an almost total fade out on the drums, leaving only John and guitar for a moment!

Victor Munoz writes

Paul has TWO tracks of harmony on that tune. He does two harmonies over John's low harmony except for when John does his lead vocal segments. Therefore there is no way that Paul's voice could disappear if he has two harmonies going throughout the main verses.

Agreed, Paul has a double harmony part, but one or both of Paul's vocal parts go weak at this point, as do the drums.

0:04 to 1:40
Constant click click click (often thought to be a fault). This is reported as Ringo's ride cymbal but it leads by about 1/32 of a bar ahead of where the beat is conventionally "expected". Also suggested as a metronome.

Further reports seem to suggest that this is a double ride cymbal hit - the first being ahead of the beat, sort of "ca-CHINK" - the first is only really audible as a tick.

The explanation comes from Stephen Moss

I've been thinking long and hard about the noise in "I'll Cry Instead" for some time, and the noise is definitely the playing of the ride cymbal.

When I began to write this, I was in fact going to suggest otherwise (spoons, or rockabilly-style sticks on the drum rim), but an extremely critical listen has shown me the light (and a number of other thing in the track, some of which are likely not-quite anomalies, and some of which augment existing anomalies).

If you listen to the song, percussion wise, the tambourine is the most prominent instrument. Behind that, there's a simple beat on the snare, and a subtle ride cymbal wash. Ringo's playing a jazz pattern on the ride: Consider a 4/4 count...

1 - - 2 - - 3 - - 4 - - |
R R R R R R R
S S

Ringo's playing a straight snare beat on the 2 and 4, but the ride pattern has a double attack that dances into the 1 and 3 (with the second attack falling on the beat).

This becomes most obvious at 1:04: "Show you what your lovin' man can do"... Ringo hits the ride harder, almost as one would strike a crash cymbal, and quickly hand-mutes the cymbal, grabbing it to silence it.

1:10
Edit, and the rhythm guitar drops out in mid strum. This is between "cry" and "instead". It is suggested by Stephen Moss that his dual-voiced part on "cry" is not tight at all, especially compared to previous examples in the track. It almost sounds like he's about to run into difficulty singing at all. (Reference the "I'm crying" bridge in the Anthology version of I Am The Walrus... Does he just have issues with the word 'cry'?) At the cut, on "instead" suddenly the vocal snaps back into line.

1:12-1:21
George is having problems with the lead guitar. Note how low he is mixed, compared with the first bridge at 0:45. Critical listening shows that he's fumbling some of the runs, and is only mixed back in clearly when the playing improves.

1:37
John makes a double-tracking error, between "But 'til then" and "Until then", leaving an unclear "Guhtil then ..."

1:10
John (low harmony) sings "Well, there's gonna be a time when I'm gonna make you mine".
Paul (high harmony) sings "Well, there's gonna be a time when I'm gonna change your mind".
George is doing a middle harmony, it's hard to tell who he's siding with on this one.

0:04
Paul tries out the start of the song "Where did you go?, Where did you go?" (Vinyl version only, not on CD).

0:15
Feedback on the acoustic guitar (left).

1:01,1:04
Handclaps go all out of time and stop.

1:05,1:43
Edit in the phrase "Love ha/as a nasty habit". Second time is much more subtle.

1:18
On the down-beat of "were above me <here> But not today" there is a loud guitar feedback/harmonic (left of centre).

1:20
Sounds like the dropping of a tambourine.

1:34, 2:16-2:19
One of the organ stabs moves to the centre of stereo (from the right) for no real reason. Same again at 2:16-2:19, but more random in nature.

1:35
Talking.

1:39
Out of place guitar notes, actually these occur in a few places.

1:41-1:42
Two clicks (centre).

1:52-1:54
George plays various out of tune notes, right channel. This happens in a few places (not the cleanest of guitar tracks!) but here is worst.

1:58
Ringo misses the snare! Actually, from 1:50 to 1:58 Ringo seems to be moving his position, as the snares change sound each time, one time he hits the rim only (1:54), before missing this beat totally.

2:19-end
George either gets bored with the riff, or becomes distracted, as he plays random notes into the fadeout (right).

Also note that on the American stereo LPs there are two false starts not counted above. The first is about 1 beat, and the second three or four beats.

David L Fairey has a wild theory on why this track is like this. See if you agree ...

My main argument surrounds the recording of the Rubber Soul track I'm Looking Through You, possibly one of the messiest recordings the Beatles made. It is rushed, terribly recorded and not particularly played well. Thus, I have a theory...

I believe, contrary to all other reports (including Lewisohn and Macdonald) that this could be a solo Paul recording. After all it was his song and quite a personal subject for him. The drumming is awful, with a noticeable rimshot being missed, no bass drum [MB: untrue, it's there, flumping away!] or hats and cymbals. Sounds like the old patting-the-knees percussion to me, recorded on top of a snare to keep time.

The guitars sound out of tune and sound like Paul's style of play, especially at the end. George was always a more organised guitarist and I can't see him committing this to tape when the Beatles where at their height! The guitar sound is also Paul, maybe his Epiphone Casino? The tambourine work is poor also and the organ stabs should have been heavily compressed.

In fact, the best input is the acoustic - capo'd? - guitar most audible at the start of the song.

Whatever, it's a messy recording, especially when compared to other Rubber Soul tracks which are well played and nicely produced. I don't have the date at hand when it was recorded but I'd guess it was one of the last songs recorded for the album. I do know however that Paul had had the main part of the song for some time. Was it dusted down, quickly recorded to complete the album?

Anyway, my main point is that it sounds like a song in which neither Ringo or George (and probably John) contributed.

Well, according to Lewisohn's Recording Sessions, "I'm Looking Through You" was almost the last track recorded. This version was recorded on the 10th and 11th November, 1965. 11th November is described as a marathon recording session. Final remixing was done on the 15th November. So yes, there was a deadline looming very hard.

Also, Lewisohn's Recording Sessions states that there was an initial attempt to record a backing for this song on 24th October. No list of who was present, or who-played-what is given. Interesting.

On the 6th November, a re-make was performed of this track, described as "too fast and frenetic". Again, no details of performance credits. "Verrrry interesting" as they say.

10th November, it was "finally made in a way that pleased everyone". Were the others even present? Could it be that this recording pleased Paul as it was completed to his satisfaction, and the others were pleased, because the thing was finished without them having to do it again with deadlines looming!

The album sleeve credits Ringo as playing a Hammond organ on the song, "but it cannot be heard on the recording, nor is the instrument detailed on the tape box" (Lewisohn again). In which case, what are those loud stabs on the organ? Evidently the tape box is not accurate either, as there is an organ there.

As a "conspiracy theory" it's an interesting idea, and I wonder how many other tracks might fall into this category. Suggestions on a postcard, or e-mail ...

0:48, 0:51, 0:54, 0:58, 1:30, 1:33, 1:36, 1:40
Strange drum/guitar/vocal sound, like a falling "whoosh", or a laboured breath. Occurs right after every line of the chorus, on the 3rd beat. One suggestion is that it's a distorted guitar, hammering out a chord and then allowing it to fall down the fretboard, and this is mixed very low or bled over from another track.

1:07
Under the word "so" in "I'm so tired" there is a strange vocal/instrument sound.

1:58 Listen!
Lennon gibberish. This is not backwards. Renditions such as "M'sieur M'sieur, How about another?" seem to be reading in sounds that are just not there in an attempt to force it to make sense. It's nonsense speak. It's pure John Lennon.

Also rendered by Iain Tacey as

"missya, missya, how 'bout dinner huh? ..... Julian?"

To which the very last sound appears to be a child's voice which is immediately cut. (Remember Julian would have been 5 years old then and was around John and Yoko at that time , as pictures show).

The child's voice (I guess) being the "pleh".

The nearest I can transcribe phonetically is "Lissum, Blussak a mizure, habuts-an-oh'en. Tidja tidja tuplay, pleh!". The final "pleh?" is often translocated onto the beginning of Blackbird due to a mastering error when making the CD. At a stretch, I can also get "Listen, bloodsucking m'sieur". Whatever that might mean.

Having read the above, coopastarr@yahoo.com writes

For "I'm So Tired" you said that the 'gibberish' at the end of the song is not backwards, well, it actually is.

No, actually, it isn't. Really, it isn't.

I have recorded and reversed it and clearly heard "Paul's dead man, miss him, miss him" You can hear this yourself by recording it onto your computer and reversing it in your "Sound Recorder" if you have Windows. This can also be done with Blue Jay Way, revolution 9, and other songs.

This shows how easily people believe urban legends and folklore. You hear "Paul is dead" because that's what you've been clued to hear. I'll say it again - it was said and recorded forwards, and makes no sense. Listening to it backwards it sounds even less like speech, makes less sense, but if you were looking for a hidden message you'd be able to find one.

1:47
At very end of piano solo, one single guitar note can be heard, in the right channel.

2:12
Lennon flubs the word "life-thhhp" in the double tracking.

On the subject of the "baroque" solo that George Martin played for this piece, Ugo Coppola writes :-

...a friend of mine, who is a classical pianist / harpsichord player, very experienced in baroque music, remarks that all of the mordents in this piece (i.e. the little three-note trills) are stylistically wrong, because they come before the "embellished" (real) notes, instead of coming after them (where they should correctly be). He also said: "You cannot close a bar with a mordent, and Martin does this twice."

If anybody has the raw outtakes 1 through at least 9 or higher than you all know that the famous vocal count intro of "1 2 3 4" was edited onto take one from take 9. On an unedited outtake recording, following another collapse of the tune during take 8, Paul is getting a bit impatient and frustrated and that is why he is captured punctuating his "1 2 3 FOUR!".

Another brilliant move by Martin to edit that intro on to the final composite capturing Paul's passionate intro count in.

1:11
Paul hits a wrong note on the 6th note of the repeating 8-note pattern, partly masked by drum fill.

John and Paul both distinctly laugh at this mistake, whilst still singing (1:30-1:31).

1:32
Horrible edit in the end of the chorus, during the word "there". The new take comes in over the old one (leading to "there-ere"). This cut is just before the solo, and probably leads to a cut back at 2:26.

This point seems to be an edit back to the original take, so not entirely John's fault on the vocal error. Close examination of Ringo's fill reveals that he goes to smack the crash cymbal, yet all we hear is the impact point, and then a heavy bass drum sound as the other take returns. The cymbal itself is lost to the edit.

0:01, 0:04
Although this is a mono track, there are two distinct "stereo" effect wobbles in the track here.

0:06
The harmonica drops out for a bit. Sounds to me more like running out of breath than bad mixing. (Not on Mono CD version).

0:59
Click during "Mine".

1:08
Random finger snap.

2:00-2:01
Double tracking lost here, during word "see" - and it sounds like "Can't you see (it)" because of some talking at this point.

2:16
Bad edit between "love me to-oo-o, oh../And when I".

2:21
Double tracking regained, on the words "mine, ah-ha-hine".

Anthony writes to point out an "off-record" anomaly

In the movie A Hard Day's Night , why is Paul miming along to a song he doesn't even sing? "I Should Have Known Better!" The song even gets more ridiculous when it's performed on someone's show or even live. John's harmonica plays on its own while he is miming (or singing).

0:00-0:01
Often pointed out, "To your mu..." vocal is cut off by the guitar. However, the vocal continues to about 0:04, but is unintelligible due to the guitar. The vocal is not "All too much".

4:20-4:31
Ringo does some strange fills and seems to lose sync, it's impossible to follow the original beat of the song through this point. When you come out of the other side, you have to resync to a new downbeat. For a couple of bars (4:33-4:37), the clapping (which didn't waver) goes from being on the 2 and 4 beats, to the 1 and 3 beats. Ringo does a half fill to bring us back into time at 4:39.

0:08
John counts in "1,2" (centre, very quiet). The "one" sounds like "hum".

0:41
LP only - word "only" loses its double tracking. This is intentional (to hide an error) as on the CD the double-track has been left in. You can hear that the timing of "only" is out of place. The mono version also loses double tracking to try and correct this problem.

1:03-1:06
John puts a bit too much emphasis on the word "bright" so it sounds like "bbrright" and he lets out a slight laugh up until he sings "very bright." Also lead guitar fill here is flubbed.

Anthony again points out a non-audio anomaly

On the US version of Rubber Soul, why does it credit John and Paul as being the singers of It's Only Love when it's a John solo? He provides his own harmony in the song.

Throughout
Paul never seems to play his melodic bass line and sing at the same time. Especially at 2:01, Paul returns to doing the full bass line while John sings, yet stops at 2:45 when he has to rejoin him. CoreyTan@aol.com observed: "Such is live recording, but you would have figured Paul could chew gum and walk at the same time." There is a tuning or intonation problem with the higher notes on the bass - they are sharp.

0:02-0:04
During John's guitar intro, George plays some stray notes, noticeable to centre and right as the faders open. Sounds like maybe George tuning up his first and second notes? Bootlegs of the rooftop concert contain lots of junk at the start of this track, so this may be a bit that was missed in "cleaning up" for the CD.

0:05-0:06
CD release makes the fade in of Paul's vocal very obvious, with copious amounts of hiss.

2:35-2:39 and 3:09-3:25
Right channel, you can hear (acoustically) the sound of the plectrum going across guitar strings here.

2:41
Something disastrous happens with the guitar work here.

3:18
Some discussion arose over whether John says "Oh yeah" or "F*ck yeah". Sounds like "Oh yeah", but with a laugh in the middle of the phrase.

3:33 Listen!
Apart from the obvious "Oh my soul, Ooo that's so hard", there is a faint background comment about "Although these people wanna look over the edge ..."

1:02-1:16
Solo is taken from a live take, and has the rest of the group in the background. Also there is some talking evident on the end of solo (right channel in stereo versions, harder to catch in mono). Sounds like it could be John. Drumming sound changes (especially the ride cymbal).

1:30
Random "ooh" after "no other can".

1:33-1:34
Mono CD, but the whole sound shifts slightly to the right, and back.

What John in fact is saying is: "I'm not gonna hold your hand" for that one line. Typical, no? A friend of mine, Stuart Hirsch cornered John in the elevator of the White Plains county courthouse where John was being considered for deportation. Stu gave him a 7 page interview, which John kindly filled out and mailed back. This was one of the questions.

Toward the end of the version on the Red Album, Paul's voice cracks viz. "I Wanna Hold Your Haaa-ah!".

1:48
Edit at the beginning of the second "I Can't Hide", with a 'fwip' in the right channel.

1:52
During the word "hide" an additional voice faintly appears in the centre with a slightly off key "Oooo".

2:22
During the final fade out, the instruments to the left fade very suddenly before the fade out has completed.

Whole Song:
Jeffrey Aarons points out the following

You have not mentioned the most curious "anomaly" (in my opinion) ... There is a superimposed instrument that in fact "makes" the song. It provides the rich texture that could not be duplicated live (hint). For 30 years I have claimed this instrument is superimposed as a brilliant move by Mr. Martin.

It's amazing that it's so obvious and yet no one ever catches it or even hears it after you tell them it's there. Yes ... a Hammond organ is SUPERIMPOSED on top of John's rhythm guitar to create that richly textured effect that drives the whole tune.

Note that John could never re-create that sound on live versions. The Hammond organ is a brilliant choice made by George Martin and he confirmed the use of the organ when a radio host fielded him the question on my behalf a few years ago at a Washington D.C. press conference. It's obvious Martin felt that this would strengthen the backing track and his superimposition of various keyboards had already been employed throughout many Beatles recordings. The use of the organ in I Want to Hold Your Hand must have been inspired be the recording of I Want to Be Your Man, where John, Paul or Martin dubs in the Hammond organ as a superior backing texture to just a plain rhythm guitar. Hold Your Hand was recorded after the I Want to Be Your Man sessions according to Mark Lewisohn's Book 'Beatles Recordings', so it further explains the choice of the Hammond organ.

The Hammond is superimposing low note 5th intervals over John's two bottom strings which also pound out 5th intervals on most of the chords. That sound inspired a generation of power chord style or "two note" fifth interval guitars as in the Kinks You Really Got Me, All the Day and All the Night, etc.. plus the Who, and Animals as heard in the last two ending chords of We Got to Get Out of this Place. George has a dubbed in riff over the chromatic bass line and Paul has what sounds like a dubbed in bass superimposed on that same chromatic fill.

On the German stereo version you can separate the left instrumental channel and clearly hear the Hammond organ integrated with John's guitar. You can also more clearly discern George's guitar as two guitars. One is doing chord fills and the little bent string riff over the chromatic line plus another guitar he over dubs with the chromatic line that follows the bass.

The organ is still present during the middle eight, it is very soft and just following Paul's two string 5th interval bass chords on that specific segment doing bam bambam, bum bumbum etc... George is doing soft chord arpeggios then it breaks out into that powerful intro again to lead back into the verses

Overall I Want to Hold Your Hand is quite a complicated production and that is why it came off as a studio masterpiece of power and texture.

I must agree there is something "extra" in there, and it could indeed be an organ overdub. This is not documented by Lewisohn in "Recording Sessions", but he makes no mention of the instrument lineup anyway ... It really does bolster the track.

Nobody was yelling at John. (There is no reason anybody would DARE!) Someone was just yelling in approval or excitement. It certainly doesn't come from the control room, control rooms are sound-proofed from the rest of the studio. That's why they use talkback intercoms. It's one of the other Beatles shouting during the performance.

It definitely isn't "mal" at least. Mal wouldn't be in charge of turning ANYTHING down.

Even though he's not always right, Lewisohn says:

"Close scrutiny of the original Trident tapes reveals the indecipherable shout to belong to a fellow Beatle, off-microphone, taped on 22 February, and that it was certainly not one of disapproval."

Yelling "turn that down" off-mic in the center of a studio while a song is being played is not an efficient way of letting the engineer know that you want something turned down, nor is that something a Beatle would do anyway. And after all....the engineers can only hear the shout as well as we can. They're soundproofed from the rest of the studio. They don't hear the studio sound. They hear what's going onto the tape.

So after assessing the facts, I have concluded without a shadow of a doubt that:

The shout is made by another Beatle in the studio. (I can't tell which one. It sounds like Ringo to me but it would be louder if it was him. It's probably Paul.)

The shout was just an "I'm excited about that scream in this rocking song" noise. (Paul is quite prone to those.) They DEFINITELY aren't saying "turn that down". It doesn't sound like that to me, and it isn't logical either. That rumor was started by someone who probably doesn't know a whole lot about studios or how the Beatles recorded.